I have Dell D600 with NEC 6100a, which I have updated with Firmware 2.23. So now it is NEC 6500a DVD+-RW/ DCwrite. Now it does not reconise DVD and also the drive itself is indicated as CD and not as DVD/CD

Hello there. I've just bought the nec 6500 but my Asus notebook L5831P (L5C) doesn't recognize the drive. In the bios my hard disk is recognize as Secondary master and my old cd-r as Primary master. There is not upgrade (update?) for my notebook bios and I would like to know if the Nec nd 6500a unit is compatible with my notebook or not. Thank you and sorry for my english (I'm italian)...

Ok, I'm really confused. My brand new Presario R4025CA has a NEC ND-6500A drive with 2.81 firmware, which NecDump reports as released on 25.02.2005. I haven't seen any other reference to this version number so I'm guessing it is a Compaq OEM #. Does anyone know if I should change to one of the more common versions, and if so which one?

Ok, I think I get it, and it looks like my firmware is the newest one yet posted. All the disk strategies are identical versions to those in 2N0_24.03.05.bin except for +RW, where my version is 1.32h compared to 1.32f in 2NO. I figured it would be worth posting 2.18 here, but I can't figure out how to do it, the file upload link only supports image files up to 60K. Anyone care to enlighten me?

Ok, even more confusing... I noticed that there was already a 2.81 availble here for download, but when I compare it to mine, mine STILL has newer versions of each strategy than 2.24, 2NO, and the exisitng 2.81.

My Amilo 1425 laptop came with firmware 2.40 on the ND-6500A drive, and Windows always showed the drive was using PIO instead of UDMA, no matter what I tried. Prior to re-flashing the drive, I did a CDR burn test with Verbatim 52X discs. Nero CD-DVD speed indicated the drive was topping out at 16X. I didn't do a DVD-R test, but I know it was always quite slow (~50 mins to burn a single layer DVD).

I just flashed the firmware with 2.03D and now the drive uses UDMA (which makes a big difference in itself, since now I can do other things while it burns (no more 100% max out of CPU)). I re-ran the CDR burn test, it now records at 24X, which is what the drive is supposed to. However, a DVD-R burn test still only yields 4X (19 minutes), using Sony 1-8X media. This drive is supposed to be able to do 8X on single layer DVDs.

Is there a better firmware to use than 2.03D? Does the riplock feature make any difference to burn speed, or only when ripping DVDs?

Also, I've noticed that several CDs that I've burned with this NEC drive have difficulty or cannot be read at all in certain other drives (which I know to be ok). This might be the el cheapo media I was using, but I've never had problems with it before. Those problem discs read fine on the NEC.

Hello. I hate to ask this on a 14-page thread, but is anyone willing to help me from scratch in trying to recover from a stupid move? I flashed my ND6500A with one of the booktype setting firmwares, version 2.24, which was fine. It was originally a 2.22 drive, retail. Well, I got a new laptop, and got it to fit in fine, but then I couldn't boot with both the hard disk and the ND6500A in at the same time (if one or the other was in, that was fine). I've since made that laptop work with an older CDRW drive and the hard disk jumped as Device 1, and I don't know what that means. I've been told it should work fine with any optical drive set as secondary master.

In desperation, I went and flashed my ND6500A with the 4.24 firmware, thinking that would set it as slave. I've since found that I can't flash it again, either in Windows or DOS (using an ultimate boot CD and executing flash files from the hard disk). I also can't make either the 6500BOOT or 6500MAIN utilities work. When I run 6500BOOT, it says the drive is already set and that I should run 6500MAIN, which then fails. Whenever I try to flash a firmware, the drive just hangs and flashes. Luckily, I can pop it out of the hot-swappable bay and it still works. In XP, it's listed as having the 4.24 firmware (Liggy's bitset version). In SiSoft Sandra, it shows up as ATA Controller 1 Master, but NOT PRESENT, even though it clearly is present, and works in Windows. I should also say that I can only boot from the ND6500A if I turn off multiboot settings in my BIOS, otherwise, even if I have my Compaq multibay set as first boot option, the computer defaults to the hard drive.

What I'd really like to do is somehow get the drive back to its original firmware line (2.2x). I think the 6500BOOT and 6500MAIN tools might be the key, but I can't really figure out how to do this. If anyone is willing to help, I'd appreciate it. Also, I'd be happy to dump my firmware and send it along. TIA.

OK, I admit I hadn't read all 14 pages (I still only skimmed a couple). If you could, please let me know if the idea of bridging pins 45 and 47, then reflashing and unbridging, may be my solution. While I'm at it, does anyone have any experience using this drive in an Asus Z70V (aka M6V) or its predecessor, the M6N or M6000N? Thanks.

Hello, For any of those using Macintosh, I received an OEM drive firmware ver. 2.22 and have installed it in my PowerBook G3 Pismo. I was able to burn a DVD-RW using Toast, play DVD and CDs, and boot a startup CD through selection in the Finder. I could not burn in the finder nor boot from a CD using the C key. I updated my firmware to 2.24 and am now able to boot using the C key. I also erased a DVD-RW using Disk Utility but I still cannot burn in the Finder. Burning in iTunes and iPhoto is supported natively. I tried Patchburn with the original firmware and it did not make Finder burning work. I am running OS X 10.3.9. I also tried the 4.24 firmware. All the same worked as above but I could not boot using the C key. Flashing back to 2.42 worked.

Jasman, I read this entire thread a couple times to figure out what to do.

My experience with changout of my old 1x Matshita UJ-810 with the NEC ND-6500a.

My Toshiba 5205-S705 laptop had the UJ-810 installed as a slave. The new ND-6500 came as cable select and caused an IDE error#0 when installed. After reading various forum posts on this issue I learned about ‘reverse ATA’. I ordered a ‘Slimline to IDE’ adapter. Using this adapter, I installed the 6500 in my desk top PC on the secondary IDE cable. It was recognized as master and slave depending which connector I hook it up to. Following the instructions from’6500boot’ I created a bootable CD with Nero and added all the 6500boot programs. I booted to DOS, but when I tried to run the 6500 boot program, I got a message saying ‘firmware not changed correctly, 6500boot.bat missing.’ After trying MANY different combinations and 2 PCs, I made a bootable floppy with all the BOOT6500 programs. Restarted PC and booted to DOS from the floppy. Ran BOOT6500.bat successfully! ND-6500 now recognized as ND-6100a 0.01. It also showed up as SLAVE even though it was still on the IDE Master connector (hence Reverse ATA). I rebooted to DOS again and ran 6500MAIN.bat. Again – a successful flash. Removed floppy and restarted computer to Windows XP. Now the drive it back to ND-6500a with the firmware 4.21. (The same as 2.21, but for Reverse ATA drives). I then downloaded Liggys 4.24firmware with bit setting and flashed it again, this time from windows. I set it to default DVD+R single & duel layer disks to DVD-ROM. Rebooted and checked to make sure everything was ok and then moved the ND-6500 to my Toshiba laptop. The Laptop now booted up ok and recognized the 6500 as SLAVE. I took a Dremmel tool and modded the faceplate to fit with my Toshiba and reinstalled it on the 6500 DVD burner. The 6500 faceplate is not as thick, so it sits a little deeper into the laptop, but I can live with that.